Customer Reviews

The Road from La Cueva

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Here's a review from Alex Pattakos, author of Prisoners of Our Thoughts:

The Road from La Cueva"A powerful and passionate story about the defiance of the human spirit! The Road from La Cueva is an existential drama that needs to be read by anyone who has ever questioned the deeper meaning of their life's circumstances. In an engaging and empowering style, Dr. Sheila Ortego takes us on an adventurous road trip through the hills and valleys of the human experience. And she does it with characters with whom we can all resonate on some level! Here's an intimate, authentic account of the struggle within that all of us, as human beings, must face in our everyday lives."

...this story will make laugh, cry, and finally rejoice at the power of the human spirit. While it is a story as told by Ana Howland, it is not restricted to the lives of women. It will touch a nerve for any person that has, for any number of reasons, surrendered their spirit to another human being. And that person took it without regard for the gifts they held in their hands. The gifts of love and trust. It is about control.

Her journey takes you on a "road" sometimes tended to but, more often muddied and challanging while pulling neighbors, friends, and family along the way. It tells how she loses herself in order to meet with the approval of another only to hit the bottom to find she is no longer the person she wanted to be...living the life she wanted to live. The only way is up and Ana does this without compromising her beliefs by taking control of herself again. This strengthens the relationship with her child, her family, and eventualy her heart. Once she loves herself again she can love another.

Ana shows us that the road to La Cueva, as in life, may be long and tortuous but when you stay true to yourself, you will reach your final destination. This is "Mapquest" for the human spirt!

This beautifully written novel tells the story of one woman's journey of self-discovery. The novel doesn't only contend with Ana Howland's increasing sense of being smothered by a domineering and controlling husband, but also shows her growing realization that she has always lived under the overbearing weight of an oppressive relationship. Neither her authoritarian mother nor her dictatorial husband can accept her as a separate and imperfect person.

The Road from La Cueva is full of metaphor and in the hands of Ortego, the use of this device brings a richness and poetry to a topic that might seem trite in other hands. We are given a deeper glimpse into Ana's struggles through the images of the hostile road from La Cueva, the stubborn clay shaped by the potter, and the Changing Woman Ceremony (sometimes called the Sunrise Ceremony).

The road to and from Ana's home is a very tangible representation of those oppressive relationships in her life. When this dirt road is dry, it is as hard and unyielding as rock ... ready to tear up and break what dares to pass over it. Wet, the road is even worse. It oozes over and sucks everything into it with "a satisfied, brown belch."

The beauty of the imperfect is gorgeously represented through the craft of pottery. As Ana learns this craft from Michael, a co-worker, she notices that one of his creations has an uneven rim.

"He ran his fingers around the rim of the cup. 'See how this isn't even? The Japanese call this shibui, the flaw that makes something beautiful. The shape has to have some room, some freedom.' ... 'Like with people,' he said, and she nodded."

It is this very room and freedom that is lacking in Ana's life. She has allowed the oppressive behaviors of others to weigh down her very being and she knows that it is something only she can change.

One of the most beautiful chapters in the book is the one describing the Changing Woman Ceremony, a Native American ceremony celebrating the change from girlhood to womanhood. Ana already knows that the means to change her life is within reach. It becomes more apparent as she watches the ceremony and recognizes her own internal strength and power as a woman. No longer will she be passively shaped by others. Ana already has the ability to gain command over her weaknesses, to be physically and emotionally strong, and to endure and suffer with dignity. Before the readers' eyes, "[she is shaped] ... into the woman she [is] to become." Her deep compassion and resilience form a strong core around which to emerge.

The Road from La Cueva is an encouraging look at the power we all have to shape our own lives. The passion and beauty of the writing is something that will draw me back to this story repeatedly.

"Reviewed for Front Street Reviews"

The Road from La Cueva by Sheila Ortego is such a wonderful read. It was short, far from sweet and to the point without all the added fluff and filler you will find in most books. This book could pertain to any number of women around the world in trouble.

Ana Howland is an almost to perfect woman for a fiction novel. She's a wife, mother, friend, daughter and lover. Lacking self esteem, being depressed, feeling trapped and scared to death keeps her in a marriage of hardship.

The story is a journey through a year of Ana's life and of the changes that come from a welcoming hand out of the blue. Each day, week, month offer up steps forward and steps backward while Ana tries so hard to find the tiniest morsel of courage to make the right decisions for her and her daughter.

Ana is in an abusive controlling marriage with the constant threat of danger at every turn she makes. What she thought would be a life long loving relationship has been anything but. The only kindness her husband does show is to their young daughter and she wonders how much of that is true.

A stranger comes along and offers her salvation but at what cost. A neighbor becomes friends with her on such a deep level that Ana's husband is jealous and forbids her to stay friends with this person. Both of these people help Ana see that life is not always what you're handed and you can change the outcome. All you need to do is ask for help but does she have the courage and will she escape unscathed.

The author of this book deserves the best of reviews for this touching, heart melting story that could be of any one of our lives. The novel seems too real to be a work of fiction and I wonder how much is fact and how much is truly fiction. I would give this a 5 star rating because it captured me, educated me and let me see that there are true friends and love out there, you only have to reach for them.

Good writing, intriguing story, well-developed characters. Sheila Ortego deftly describes a woman's journey that is familiar, but she leads the reader through a physical landscape that is not familiar to most people outside the desert Southwest. The main character, Ana, realizes that love can be as beautiful and as deadly as the mountains and deserts that she calls home. Without being didactic, Ortego leads Ana (and vicariously, the reader) on a quest for an authentic life that requires painful self-reflection and acceptance that the place we want and need to live may be within sight, but the journey from here to there requires courage and determination.

This wonderfully written book, is one of a young woman's (Ana) story of determination, courage, friendship and love. Dr. Sheila Ortego shows just how difficult but possible it is to fight for what needs to happen in the growth of her character, Ana. This is a good fast read and enjoyable. I hope to see more by this author. I highly recommend it.

There's no mistaking the central figure in Santa Fe Community College president Sheila Ortego's debut novel. An affecting tale of a woman's hesitant journey out of a marriage gone bad, The Road from La Cueva deftly paints both a metaphorical and literal road that residents of a certain community some 30 miles northeast of Santa Fe might just recognize.

"It would be a hard drive to get through the ditches carved in the road and up the slippery hills. The last stretch was a bog full of boulders, curved and slick as turtlebacks."

The "road" young hospital worker Ana Howland takes |as she acknowledges the loveless fear she lives in with her angry husband Frank is strewn with similar obstacles. But her growing sense of self through her journey--including an ill-timed love affair and a friendship with her independent neighbor, an Apache woman with a heartbreaking secret --eventually renders even that rock-strewn road merely a challenge to conquer rather than another defeat.

The Road is a slender novel that suffers from cramming too much information into too few pages. Much interesting activity transpires during Ana's journey out of La Cueva, yet there is a sense of rushing the plot along at the expense of a deeper sense of the story and its characters. That said, it is a quick read filled with graceful descriptive passages in an uncommonly recognizeable tale. Perhaps Ortego's next effort will take its time down that treacherous road.

A quiet afternoon, a warm couch, a breeze off the porch, and a simply written, powerful read telling a unique, yet universal story that many women, and yes, many men, can melt into. Sheila Ortego has given us a sliver of her character's life, a slice of the southwest, and a small joy of a story that will leave us thinking, and perhaps more prepared to brave the changes of which we must ourselves effect.

I love the way this book takes you into the gritty reality of a bad marriage and dismal circumstances, while maintaining humor and hope. It's hard to put down. A very satisfying read.

After browsing in a bookstore and finding nothing of particular interest I came across this book. I usually have a very hard time keeping my interest in fiction, particularly works that stray from the standard guy themes (Ludlum, Griffin, etc.) But I found this work particularly captivating and engaging. A relatively quick read, the powerful scenery descriptions that Ortego employs in creating her story is really quite remarkable. The story is believable and captivating. I highly recommend and am looking forward to her next effort.